For the week between the District 2 Class A semifinals and Saturday's title game at Marywood University, assistant coach Jim Monteforte had Carey and her teammates running wind sprints to keep up their conditioning.

It paid off, as the Lady Devils sprinted out of the blocks on a 10-0 run and were never headed, winning their third straight championship, and a 20th victory, 53-37.

"You have no idea how bad a week of practice is with no games," said Carey, who scored 16 points and made six steals. "Coach Jim runs us really hard.

"We do suicide (sprint) after suicide after suicide. It's like, 'Oh, God, we need a game.'"

Carey sprinted to the basket with the opening tip to give Old Forge the lead five seconds in. The Lady Foresters never got closer than six and trailed by double figures for the last 21 minutes.

"I told our girls in the beginning of the game, if you dig a hole, it's gong to be hard to dig out of, because they are a good team and a sound team," Forest City coach Natalie Winters said. "I have so much respect for (head coach) Tom (Gatto) and their program. Those girls know what he wants out of them."

That's to attack the rim and shoot open 3s when they are there. Teri Vieira followed orders and banked in a 20-footer to make it 7-0.

"It wasn't the best shot," Vieira said. "It was kind of lucky and banked in. That was a good omen for the beginning of the game."

It helped loosen things up inside, and Tori Tansley, coming off the bench at the end of the first quarter, took full advantage, scoring on seven attacks to the rim and finishing with 16 points.

"When they extend that 2-3 zone a little and try to take away the outside shots, I knew I had to do something inside," Tansley said.

About the only thing to slow Old Forge's momentum was a half-court swish by Carly Erdmann to end the first half, cutting Forest City's deficit to 26-13.

But the Lady Devils opened the second half with a 9-2 spurt for a 21-point edge.

Tansley powered along the baseline for a layup, Vieira hit another 3 and Carey scored four in a row. But Old Forge got a little too comfortable with its lead.

"We'd get a lead and then we'd slack off and give them some open 3s," Gatto said. "And give them credit, they hit them and it kept them in the game."

With Cassandra Bendyk, who led the Lady Foresters with 11 points, on the bench in foul trouble, the rest of the club rallied.

Erdmann hit two free throws and a baseline 3, Anna Congdon drilled another 3 and Madison McGraw added a 15-footer. With 1:15 to go in the quarter, the lead was 35-24.

"You get so lackadaisical," Tansley said. "'Oh, we're up 21, they're never going to come back.' Especially with Bendyk having three fouls. Everything started to slow down, you realize they are slowly coming back and we weren't responding to anything.

"The five of us just had to get together and put our heads together and go out and do what we know how to do, and that's win."

Tansley scored seven of Old Forge's next nine, part of a spurt that saw it extend the lead to an insurmountable 44-28 lead with 4:28 left.

"I stress score and stop on that defensive end, and then we take a bad shot, or we throw an airball at the basket or we're not patient offensively," Winters said. "You make a run, you don't necessarily have to take that first shot. You have to be patient and let the game come to you."

While the Lady Foresters' season ended, Old Forge moves on to host Harrisburg Christian on Saturday. The Knights were the top seed in District 3 before losing in the semifinals and finishing third.

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